An everyday tale of family and political life with a dollop of Formula One and various random thoughts on the side.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Homophobic Nationalist gives more money to the SNP

Four years ago Stagecoach co-founder Brian Souter gave £625,000 to the SNP. This year, he's offering half a million in match funding to the SNP again.

Mr Souter is not on the same page when it comes to gay rights as I am. He's not even in the same library. 11 years ago, he spent a fortune campaigning against the repeal of Section 2A (the Scottish equivalent of Section 28). I won't travel on his buses if I can help it and I wouldn't want any of his money coming to the Liberal Democrats' way.

Labour and the SNP are engaged in a Twitter war over this. The Labour line seems to be that Brian Souter is the devil incarnate because of his views on gay rights. They should be reminded that Labour when in Government at Westminster thought that it was fine to deport LGBT people to countries where they would face persecution or execution by telling them that they had the option of being discreet. The SNP line should be that they're not as bad as Labour taking money from Tesco.

It's also quite laughable that Labour try to make themselves out to be the underdog, saying that they'll be hard pushed to match that spending. Rubbish. They want to win back power at Holyrood and they'll spend whatever it takes to do so, backed by their union pals.

Brian Souter's a Nationalist. What he does with his money is his own business. It is hardly surprising that as a Nationalist, he wants to donate to the SNP. Nor is it news, quite frankly.

The wider issues which should worry us are whether it's healthy in a democracy for rich and powerful people or organisations to donate potentially game changing amounts of money to any political party.

3 comments:

The wider issues which should worry us are whether it's healthy in a democracy for rich and powerful people or organisations to donate potentially game changing amounts of money to any political party.

Yes, I remember Brian Souter's divisive and prejudiced campaign eleven years ago. Interestingly, he was supported in his crusdae of intolerance by some Christian organisations such as CARE, which now sponsor a number of MPs, including some Lib Dems.

Yes, there are wider questions about the healthiness of powerful people donating "game-changing" amounts of money - whether that is on either a national or local scale. Theer are also questions to be asked about organisations with particular moral positions sponsoring MPs and paying for their interns.

You're right in your analysis of Brian Souter. I wouldn't want his money either. But I think you're being a bit unfair on Labour's record in government on LGBT issues. Labour did far more for gay rights and equality than any other government to date - and I for one am grateful for it.